<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Rewritten: or what makes a magical girl by Orajje</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27679672">Rewritten: or what makes a magical girl</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orajje/pseuds/Orajje'>Orajje</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Rewritten [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Memory Loss, Memory Magic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 00:49:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>943</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27679672</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orajje/pseuds/Orajje</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Homura has memories of a girl who doesn't exist, and memory manipulation. A combo fit to give even the most devoted doubts.</p><p>countless memories, all possibly fabricated.</p><p>What if she chose to lock them away?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Akemi Homura &amp; Sakura Kyouko, Akemi Homura &amp; Tomoe Mami, Sakura Kyouko &amp; Tomoe Mami</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Rewritten [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2024074</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Rewritten: or what makes a magical girl</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Homura Akemi looked upon the world. A world in which the person she cared about most doesn’t exist.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>It was agony.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Being the only person to remember Madoka was </span>
  <em>
    <span>agony</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She had faith in her existence… but some days it was harder to fight back the idea that Madoka was just some fabrication she had shoved on the Law of Cycles with her own powers or wish to give her a purpose.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It would be rather ironic, Homura Akemi, the girl who can manipulate memories, being the biggest victim of her own power. She had counted sometimes. It was difficult as a lot blended together. But she was pretty sure it was at least a decade.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A decade of possibly false memories.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A decade of horrible tragedies and trauma.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She wanted to forget.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She wanted to forget all of it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But… if they weren’t false… then that would be a betrayal of Madoka. Especially if she didn’t fight to protect the world afterwards.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She couldn’t stop fighting just because she hated her memories.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Who said she had to? The old her was weak. But what if...</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She did some research into memory.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And decided to test something.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was a success.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After that, it took her a month before she was satisfied.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Then, she stored her memories away, only to be regained when she was brought away by The Law of Cycles.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>---</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When Homura became distant, Mami hadn’t been sure what to do. She didn’t want her to go the same way as Sayaka, but she ignored her and Kyoko’s advice. She still fought with them at times, but she usually ran off afterwards.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Which is why Mami was surprised when Homura flew into her apartment. Startling her and Kyoko. She had looked at them for a moment, then handed them a letter. Before she fell onto a nearby cushion, completely unconscious. After checking to make sure she was alright, they had been confused. Then they saw who the letter was to.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was addressed to Homura, and it was unopened.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They immediately could guess what this meant, but it was too late.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When Homura woke up, she was a very different person.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Not a bad person, but definitely a different one. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Even if she was very scared and confused.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <strike>
    <span>She wondered what had been changed to make her who she had been</span>
  </strike>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After she read the letter, the girl was less confused thankfully, and joined them on hunts often.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She was devastating.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Mami realized what Homura had likely been doing that month.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She had been copying others' muscle memory and skills.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She had made herself terrifyingly powerful. Just so she could continue fighting without access to her old memories.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <strike>
    <span>She would never admit it, but sometimes she wished Homura had given her the same option.</span>
  </strike>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>---</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kyoko… didn’t know how to feel about this. Homura wasn’t dead. She hadn’t been taken by the Law of Cycles. Yet, in another way, she was gone.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She would admit she could be irritating sometimes, but she had also enjoyed Homura’s company. It had always felt like Homura understood her, in a way Mami still had problems doing.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Now Homura only seemed to understand fighting, even if she didn’t quite understand why. Leaving Kyoko alone again.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>At least, in a way. She had moved into Mami’s apartment a while ago, and Homura had ended up staying over so often that before Kyoko realized it, Homura had moved in as well.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was a bit crowded with three of them, but they managed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Although, everytime Homura acted shy and lacked confidence, Kyoko felt burning, conflicting emotions. Part of her wanted to protect this Homura. It was obvious something had driven her to become the person she had been before editing her memories. Another part wanted to deck this girl wearing her friend's face. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Why couldn’t someone she cared about stick around for once…?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She guessed she would never know.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But… as she got closer to this new Homura, she realized one thing.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>She wouldn’t allow it to happen again. Even if she had to die to protect her friends.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>---</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Homura wondered why she had erased her own memories. The letter had told her that the things lost were either not worth remembering, or would be remembered when they mattered. Yet she could almost feel the holes in her memory. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Like when she looked at the red ribbons that had been in her hair, and she felt grief and happiness.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Or when she looked in the mirror, she felt hatred. A deep burning that she couldn’t understand. She tried her hardest to mess with it, to stop some of the overflowing hate, and she was somewhat successful. Her main two “looks” became braids tied with the weird ribbons, and a combination of the hairstyle she had when she woke up and a pair of normal glasses she had bought.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But being a magical girl was still so… </span>
  <em>
    <span>odd</span>
  </em>
  <span>. She was able to fight… surprisingly well. Too well. She understood fighting to an extreme extent. Being able to get herself out of anything.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Yet with every day that passed, she wondered as to what the “other” her was like. Why she had done it. Kyoko and Mami’s occasional sad looks only made her feel like she was missing something, but she could never bring herself to ask.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>So she fought as the letter asked her too. Using her bow and magic, she fought to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But she would always question what she was missing in the back of her mind. Even while flying above her enemies and laying waste to them with her magic arrows.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>